Shortcake Trifle – Rebecca Grace Allen

In The Duality Principle, Connor and Gabriella share a piece of strawberry shortcake on their first date. I am a terrible baker, but my husband loves strawberry shortcake, so my shortcake trifle recipe has turned out to be a good compromise in our house!

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Shortcake Trifle

Ingredients:

1-2 loaves store bought shortcake (or make your own, if you’re brave!)

2 cups strawberries, halved (recipe as pictured includes blueberries, too)

1 can Reddi Whip

Cookie cutter in desired shape

Clear trifle dish

Slice cake into 1½ inch thick layers. Use cookie cutter to create desired shapes. Layer remaining pieces of cake onto the bottom of the trifle dish, and use any leftover pieces as filler for the middle. Begin stacking shapes along the side of the dish, adding fruit and whipped cream as you go. (I recommend Reddi Whip because it holds its shape much better than Cool Whip or homemade.) Continue adding until you have reached the top.

I used star shapes for mine, as this was a dessert I served on Independence Day. Heart shapes can be used to create a Valentine’s Day dish, or holiday shapes to create a festive Christmas dish.

Gabriella Evans’s life exists in terms of logic and definitions. She’s holed up in Portland, Maine, for the summer to work on her PhD thesis, but something is screwing up her concentration: the rumble of a motorcycle every time the embodiment of her rough-and-tumble fantasies rides down her street.

When her best friend talks her into a blind date, she finds herself out with the opposite of her fantasy. He’s polite and well-mannered, yet something behind his crisply tailored shirt doesn’t add up—a rebellious gleam in his eye that piques her curiosity.

Orphaned at fifteen, Connor Starks has finally put the years of failing grades, breaking laws and breaking hearts behind him. The only holdover? His penchant for getting down and dirty in public places. But Gabriella makes him want to prove he’s become a better man.

Nothing intrigues Gabriella more than a problem she can’t solve. But the more Connor tries to bury his past, the more determined she is to uncover it. And what she finds makes all her trusty logic begin to fail her.

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www.rebeccagraceallen.com